While our relationship with food dictates a wide portion of our physical and mental health, it is important to factor in other health indicators such as movement! The same principles we discuss about fueling our bodies can be carried over to the world of physical activity; exercise can be a form of self care.
Exercise can be mindful and it certainly doesn’t have to fit in a box! Tribole and Resch debunk one of the biggest myths surrounding exercise – the “it’s-not-worth-it-trap”. Often, clients will discount a workout because it wasn’t tedious enough or they didn’t sweat enough, or because it wasn’t a certain form of exercise. In actuality, movement should be the general goal and movement in itself has plenty of great benefits! As little as 2-30 minutes of daily movement can help increase bone strength, reduce stress and blood pressure as well as the risk of a heart attack by over half! It is easy to subscribe to the idea that exercise is something that needs to be perfected or that it needs to fit a certain mold, but just like the prior Intuitive Eating principles emphasize, our health habits do not have to be perfect to be effective!
Here are some tips to consider about mindful movement:
Exercise is not a punishment; it is a reward!
Prioritize daily movement (but give yourself grace if it’s not in the cards for you some days!)
Choose forms of exercise that feel right for you – ones that make you walk away feeling refreshed and don’t often result in injury
Rest is just as important as exercise!
Exercise to feel good, not to change your body!
Being active for 30 minutes a day is a great goal to achieve, however, mindful movement means listening to our bodies should come first, and sometimes that includes rest! Just like food, exercise is an activity that can be used to promote help and aid us in building a synergistic relationship with our bodies instead of feeling like we’re always working against ourselves under the guise of health. In Intuitive Eating, mindful eating and movement is certainly a priority, but it does not define our moral worth or our overall health!
Stay tuned for the final principle of Intuitive Eating!